


Thief King Sasori

by Vesperchan



Series: Tumblr Shorts [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Ancient Egypt, Arranged Marriage, Egypt, F/M, Gods, Thief King Sasori, Tumblr, Tumblr Prompt, Yugioh influenced this one if you squint, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 17:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17165804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vesperchan/pseuds/Vesperchan
Summary: Thief King Sasori anticipates a desert mouse for a wife, but his cunning grandmother has other plans for the ambitious thief with this arranged marriage. “So you’re my future bride? You’re not what I expected at all.”





	Thief King Sasori

Sasori mourned his ill fate as a handful of golden coins slipped through his fingers and dropped back into the chest. Around him the torch lights flickered and bounced colors off the polished gems set into golden collars and cuffs. He caught his reflection in the polished amber and sighed. He was truly a regrettable creature.

For all his wealth and riches he was still a creature bound to traditions and tradition dictated that his crusty bat of a grandmother pick his bride and wedding day all on her own. Chiyo felt she had indulged her grandson long enough and sent word earlier that week about his own ‘desert flower’ who was slotted to arrive at the Chalice Mazes in a week’s time.

He would do as his grandmother bid and acquiesce to whatever horrible creature she had pulled from the heights of luxury to gift to the King of Thieves, but he wouldn’t be happy about it. Tradition had made him powerful and feared, but it had also bound him in chains.

“As loathe as I am to admit it, my king, a caravan approaches the sands.”

Sasori looked up from his treasures to where Temari stood, arms crossed and lips twisted into a scowl all too familiar.

“What are you in such a rotten mood for now?” Sasori grumbled. He reached into the chest again and withdrew a delicate weaving of gold lace set with red diamonds. It would do for a bridal gift, but he was hesitant to offer much more to this stranger.

“My brother heard who it was your grandmother selected.”

Sasori looked up and cocked a single brow in question. “What care have I for Kankuro’s moods? They are as ever changing as the moon and soon he will find a new heartbreak to concern himself with.”

“Not that brother.”

Sasori paused then. “Gaara?”

Temari shrugged and glanced back down the hallway. “She was his doctor when he was sick. He doesn’t care for many people, but concerning her wellbeing he doesn’t think you’ll treat her fairly.”  

“And this should bother me?”

Temari’s glower returned with greater force. “He’s one of your best shadows.”

“I have plenty of shadows and I can afford to ignore the preferences of one when it concerns who I take to my bed. Send him off to the Pharaoh’s Valley of Souls if you are worried. He can retrieve relics from the Iron Pharaoh’s tomb.”

“That tomb has already been cleared out.”

Sasori shrugged. “He doesn’t know that. By the time he returns there will be nothing for him to be upset over.”

Temari hesitated. “You’re not going to hurt her, are you?”

“Please don’t tell me you’re also developing feelings for this desert waif.”

Temari almost bristled. “She’s  _kind_. She doesn’t deserve a tool husband. She’s helped enough that if word were to get out of your mistreatment it could go very badly for you and your men.”

“My grandmother already told me as much. Apparently this alliance will foster better trade routes for our merchants in the south.” Sasori turned the necklace over and caught his reflection once more in the red stones. “You may put your heart at ease. As long as she is here she will want for nothing. Her safety is assured from me and my men and any ill that darkens the day.”   

Temari exhaled. “That’s all I ask. I’ll inform Gaara of his assignment.”

Sasori waved her off. “Be quick about it. She’ll be here within the day if she’s punctual.”

But she wasn’t.

Gaara was sent off later that night and an extra guard was put on watch above ground in anticipation of the grand caravan that Chiyo implied was set out on its way, but there were no sightings. 

The next morning came and went without any activity before noon roused Sasori from his sleep and set him into action. Temari didn’t appreciate his snide comments about how maybe he had been lucky with 'a storm burying the caravan.' If he had been anyone other than her boss and the King of Thieves, Sasori suspected the blonde might have actually hit him.    

He didn’t devote any more of his mind to his missing bride to be, but instead turned his attentions to the maintenance of his Puppet Army, since they were overdue for a check up. Kankuro had warned him that some were not responding when their traps were triggered. It would do them no good if they robbed the pharos blind only for another thief in the night to steal from them. The desert was lawless, after all.

Dressed down in a pair of loose cotton pants that collected at his ankles and little else, he started to pull apart the first non responsive puppet and began to replace the pieces sandblasted into uselessness. The ones towards the front of their hideout always needed the most attention as they took the brunt of the desert’s capricious tempers.  

The work pinched his calloused fingers and made his hands dirty, but it was what he was best at, so Sasori didn’t mind. Before he had an established empire of thieves and dishonor, back when he was a child in training for the Night Guards, he had made himself a name thanks to his combat techniques utilizing such mechanical marvels. When his parents died in a pointless campaign, Sasori took his brilliance deeper than the shadows and began a campaign of his own. Too many cursed his name for being nothing more than the reckoning an ill tempered godking deserved.

The walls of his labyrinth were as confusing as he could manage to make them, but at the entrance he had inscribed into stone a mantra all his own: _Leave your prayers in the sands, there are no gods here._    

Mother clicked and Sasori whirled in irritation, expecting to find the puppet malfunctioning again, but her trap had been triggered rightly, if a bit too delayed to stop the shadow that split from the walls like liquid. He pulled Father in front of him to catch the blow and counter with a curved blade, but the assassin was like water, impossible to cut.

_Where were the others?_

Sasori pulled Mother and Father in front of him and set the puppets into battle ahead of him, giving his hands the break they needed to find the igniter and dark fluid that rested in the belly of a different puppet. 

The shadow weaved like an impossible thing, but Sasori didn’t care how fast it could be because he knew he could light up the entire room. He aimed and let the oil spray from the built up pressure as a flame touched the end. There was a WOOSH and then blinding light as blue red fire filled the corridor of his labyrinth.

It died away a moment later, the oil nearly depleted and he stared down the empty corridor, frustrated with the lack of remains. How had his assassin escaped something so widespread? There was nowhere to hide. There was just a corridor of stone and sand.

There was no bloodlust but he sensed the presence behind him and turned in time, catching the fist and regretting it instantly. The impact made his fingers go numb and he just barely managed to bat away the next attack.

A leg came up and he wasn’t fast enough to miss it catching him in the chest. He landed in the mess of puppet pieces and groaned out loud when the weight of his attacker settled over his chest. He tried to reach up and push them off but her hands, _it was a her,_ pinned him in place.

“I know Chiyo told me her grandson was reluctant, but I didn’t know you’d be so violent.” Eyes greener than oasis grasses sparkled in a secret sort of mirth as she stared down at him. “Hello Sasori.”

“Who are you?” he bit out, angrier at himself for thinking her a bit too pretty when she had him pinned in such a compromising position.

She pouted cutely and let his hands go to pull apart the scarf over her hair and neck. “Didn’t Chiyo tell you I was coming?”

Sasori’s thoughts stalled when he recognized the black sun rays stretching down her neck, starting under her jaw and ending at her collarbone in the hands artists always attributed to Ra and the gods. The brand was one too well known but not nearly as well believed in. Heretics and temple defilers wished they could call themselves god eaters.

Before he could stop himself he reached for her neck and ran a reverent finger down the designs. She tilted her chin up and let him, seemingly unconcerned with the possibility of his hands snapping her pale column.

“Ra has dammed you.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” She touched his fingers shivering on her neck and stroked them teasingly. This made him startle. “That’s what gods do when you swallow their Sun Life. That old woman mentioned you might be interested in some yourself and I wouldn’t be opposed to storming the gates of heaven for another drop of immortality.”

Her fingers on his made him feel thin in a manner he had never before experienced. She was something else, something no longer human. Her fate had been stolen back from the gods and he wanted desperately to be solid again for her, but couldn’t manage to conjure of a feeling beyond transparency. What was he in comparison to a god killer?

“What are you doing here?” he managed in a voice to breathless to possibly be his. He sounded like a boy again. 

“Did Chiyo not tell you I was coming?”

Sasori startled. “My grandmother? How do you know her?”

Her smile was teasing in a dangerous way. “She’s an old friend and she said she would give me something good if I did her a favor. I’m Sakura. You’re Sasori, my groom, yes?”

“You are my future bride?” Sasori nearly choked out. He glanced over her as best he could from under her. “You…you are not what I expected at all.”

When she laughed it sounded like her voice was made to rattle the stars. “Good!”


End file.
